p.
128
Uzbekistan
SCORE, POINTS/OUT OF
Legal Economic
Westernization Westernization Westernization
1 | POLITICAL WESTERNIZATION 7/25
1.1 DEGREE OF POLITICAL FREEDOM, 3/10
One of the main political events of 2019 was the
parliamentary elections of December 22. These elec-
tions did not change the political life of the country,
because, as with the previous President, Islam Kari-
mov, all five parties elected to the Legislative Chamber
of the Oliy Majlis (the name of the parliament in Uz-
bek)542 are loyal to and controlled by the authorities.
Non-independent elections are based, first of all,
on the fact that not a single real opposition party was
allowed to participate in the elections, which leaves
voters with no real choice.543 There are no signs that
the Uzbek authorities are ready to register parties
that are created out of the initiative of citizens.
In the field of the media, the situation has some-
what improved under the new President Mirziyoyev.
Local journalists felt relatively more freedom in their
professional activities. More critical material has
appeared in the local press. Ordinary citizens also
began to speak more freely on social networks. If
in 2018 there was a practice of restricting access to
some social networks, especially Facebook and You-
Tube, then in early 2019 restrictions on these two
networks were lifted.544
1.2 PRO–WESTERN PARTIES IN THE PARLIAMENT 2/8
For the Uzbek public, as well as the corps of
parliamentarians, issues related to EU inte-
gration are unfamiliar, are not of great inter-
32.5/100
Language
Westernization
and Cultural
Westernization
At the same time, in the second half of the year
there were again signs of attempts by the
authorities to restrict freedom of speech. Thus, the
authorities placed legal responsibility on the
authors of posts on social networks, especially if
the authors are from the media, and for the au-
thors to comment on their posts. Now, authors of
posts should remove not only comments that are
against the law (for example, inciting ethnic or
religious hatred), but also be responsible for the
reliability of comments in which certain facts are
reported.545
In early November 2019, the Tugri.uz news site,
which was created in July of this year, was sudden-
ly closed without prior warning or explanation but
gained popularity due to critical materials at the
time of closing.546
On September 22, blogger Nafosat Ollashuku-
rova was detained for being involved in a street
protest in the Khorezm region, beaten in a police
car, and then forcibly placed in a psychiatric unit,547
which was perceived by observers as a return to the
practice of punitive psychiatry.
est, and are not the subject of discussion in the
public field. Also, the public and parlia- mentary
parties are not interested in issues of
128
joining NATO. In practical terms, for Uzbek-
istan this issue is not worth it. On the issue of
NATO, a significant part of the population is
influenced by the Russian media, especially
television, and adopts anti-American senti-
ment from them. However, among parliamen-
tary parties, attitudes toward NATO are not
PUBLIC OPINION OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION 2/7
The attitude towards Western countries in Uz-
bek society remains twofold. Most of the popula-
tion understands that the West is superior to all the
former Soviet republics, including Russia, in technol-
ogy, level and quality of life. Many dream of go- ing
to Europe or North America and settling there.
Consumer demand is for goods from the West over
all other countries. At the same time, under the in-
fluence of Russian media, and in terms of politics,
part of the population directs their sympathies to
2 | LEGAL WESTERNIZATION 6/25
2.1 COMPLIANCE OF THE CONSTITUTION WITH THE REQUIREMENTS
OF WITH THE VENICE COMMISSION, 1/6
Although Uzbekistan is not a member of the
Venice Commission, some cooperation between the
two parties has taken place over the last 2-3 years.
In September 2018, a delegation of the commission
visited Uzbekistan, and in October issued an opinion
on the draft Electoral Code, which was prepared by
the Uzbek government for approval,548 and a number
of the commission’s recommendations were agreed
between the parties. In June 2019, the new version
of the Electoral Code was approved by Parliament.549
2.2 INDEPENDENCE OF THE COURTS, 1/7
The justice system does not meet international
standards, being neither independent, nor free from
discussed at all, since they are not the subject of
their interest.
At the same time, there are almost no opponents
to trade with Western countries. Almost all western
products in the Uzbek market are welcome. There
are no special differences between parliamentary
parties and public sentiments on this matter.
the Russian Federation. This is especially noticeable
among the Russian-speaking population. Mean-
while, liberal-minded intellectuals and professionals
are pro-Western, and perceive the Kremlin’s foreign
and domestic policies negatively.
On this issue, the population has been divided into
two camps, supporters of joining this union and those
who understand that joining it will mean a step towards
losing the country’s political independence. There are
no survey data that could be trusted on this issue.
Although some recommendations were introduced
into the Electoral Code, other important recommen-
dations of the Venice Commission were not taken
into account, especially the recommendation on the
registration of independent candidates. This suggests
that the Uzbek authorities still refuse to guarantee
equal rights to all political groups in the country to
participate in the election process. Voters are still be-
ing asked to choose between party candidates who
are loyal to, and controlled by, political leadership.
systematic corruption, nor sufficiently professional.
According to the results of the World Justice Project
(WJP) Rule of Law Index for 2019, Uzbekistan im-
proved its position slightly, moving from 96th place
to 94th.550 According to the WJP report, the situa-
tion in the country remains extremely unfavorable in
terms of restricting the arbitrariness of the authori-
ties (118th position out of 126 countries), openness
and transparency (119th position), corruption of the
2.3 LEGISLATION IN THE AREA OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 2/6
In 2019, there was little progress in legislative
initiatives in the field of human rights. Freedom of
association and assembly remains limited. The re-
strictions on registration of non-governmental or-
ganizations, adopted in 2005, are still maintained,
and there is no noticeable increase in officially reg-
istered non-governmental organizations created on
the initiative of citizens in the country.
Although substantial progress has been made over
the past two years in terms of limiting the practice of
forced labor in the cotton sector, the government has
2.4 NUMBER OF ACQUITTALS, 2/6
Under the previous president, Islam Karimov, the
courts passed mostly convictions. Thus, in 2012-2016
in Uzbekistan, only seven people were acquitted in
courts.551 With the appearance of Shavkat Mirziyoyev
in 2016, the situation, in terms of statistics on convic-
tions, began to change for the better. According to
the Ministry of Justice, in 2017, 262 people were ac-
quitted in Uzbekistan, and in 2018, 867 people.552 The
percentage of acquittals is now within 1.8%, which is
3 | ECONOMIC WESTERNIZATION 10/25
3.1 EU AND WTO MEMBERSHIP OR ASSOCIATION, 2/7
In June 2019, the Council of the European Un-
ion approved a new strategy on relations with
the countries of Central Asia, 554 aimed at ex-
authorities (95th position), and respect for the fun-
damental rights of citizens (109th position), that is,
by the key criteria of the rule of law.
In principle, the government accepts the services
of international organizations in promoting justice re-
form. However, it is too early to talk about practical
results on creating an independent judicial system.
not taken steps to reform this sector, first of all, by
abolishing the compulsory state order system, the so
called quotas on cotton delivery, which has been the
institutional driver of forced labor practice.
In 2019, efforts by the authorities to demolish hous-
ing for new construction were widespread. This was
largely motivated by a corrupt conspiracy between lo-
cal authorities and construction companies. Attempts
to demolish houses and evict residents to other areas
with poorer social infrastructure, without adequate
compensation were, in most cases, against the law.
still much lower than in more advanced countries in
terms of rule of law indicators.553
Decriminalization of a number of articles of the
Criminal Code, as well as the prohibition for judges
to return cases for further investigation, contributed
to the growth of acquittals. Previously, judges who
doubted the validity of the indictment preferred not
to conflict with prosecutors, but to return cases
back for further investigation.
panding partnership with this region. Uzbekistan
has also recently activated its diplomacy with the
European Union and its members. At the same
time, there were signs that the government of
Uzbekistan was considering the country’s ac-
cession to the Eurasian Economic Union, which
caused a mixed reaction in society. A number of
local experts made a statement that it would be
in the country’s interest to join the WTO. A sim-
ilar signal came from Washington with a call to
expedite accession to the WTO, 555 which forced
3.2 EASE AND TRANSPARENCY OF DOING BUSINESS, 3.5/6
Uzbekistan has been improving its Doing Busi-
ness rating recently, having risen from 79th place
to 69th compared to last year.557 Uzbekistan has
one of the best positions in terms of speed of reg-
istration and starting a business (8th place), and
one of the worst in cross-border trade (152nd po-
sition). Uzbekistan made a step forward towards
the establishment of transparency standards with
the admission of Moody’s experts to report on
economic statistics and assign the country a long-
term credit rating of “B1,” in February 2019, thus
completing the country’s first assessment with the
Big Three rating agencies on the state of its econ-
3.3 WESTERN SHARE IN THE SALES OF GOODS, 2/6
Uzbekistan is gradually increasing foreign trade
turnover. According to official figures, in Janu- ary-
August 2019, it amounted to USD 28.4 billion, an
increase of USD 7.9 billion compared to the same
period last year.560
The largest volume of foreign trade turnover
among the countries of the world was recorded with
China (18.4%), the Russian Federation (14.5%), Ka-
zakhstan (8.1%), the Republic of Korea (6.5%), Turkey
(5.7%), Germany (2.3%), and Kyrgyzstan (2.0%).561 So
far, trade turnover with the EU countries remains small.
the government of Uzbekistan to declare that it
is actively working on this issue and held nego-
tiations with the WTO. 556 However, it is not yet
clear when these negotiations will end. Since July
2019, Uzbekistan began again to increase cus-
toms duties on imports “in the interests of the
domestic producer.” Joining the WTO will force
the government to lower these tariffs.
omy (previously, in December 2018, Fitch and S&P
gave their estimates).558
A great threat to local businesses and interna-
tional investors is corruption of state bodies. In
terms of the corruption perception index, Uzbek-
istan holds one of the lowest ranks in the world,
taking the 158th place559 at the end of 2018, even
worsening its position slightly compared to 2016
(156th position) and 2017 (157th position). In May
2019, the government adopted a two-year anti-
corruption reform program, but there is no
information yet on what progress has been made
since its implementation.
Of the EU member states, only Germany entered the
top 10 countries with the largest trade turnover with
Uzbekistan. Latvia is in 11th place. Uzbekistan has the
potential to supply cotton textiles to European coun-
tries, but two things impede this: Uzbek cotton is pro-
duced using forced labor, which reduces the interest
of Western companies in importing cotton; the flow
of foreign investment in the textile industry of Uzbek-
istan is also small due to the uncertainty on the part
of foreign investors that their business would be suffi-
ciently protected in this country.
3.4 WESTERN INVESTMENTS INTO THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY, 2.5/6

According to United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development, the volume of FDI in the coun-
try remains small, although there is a tendency to
increase its inflow. At the end of 2018, the volume
of FDI amounted to USD 412 million, an increase
from USD 98 million in 2017.562 The increase in FDI
inflows is due primarily to the liberalization of the
foreign exchange policy in 2017. Now companies do
not need, as in the past, to resort to the services of
the black market and various shadow schemes to
purchase and repatriate their profits into hard cur-
rency. At the same time, per capita FDI amounted to
USD 12.7 in 2018, while in neighboring Kazakhstan it
was USD 210. Even Tajikistan, a less affluent country
and in a less advantageous geographical location, is
ahead of Uzbekistan in FDI per capita (USD 35.6 in
2018). The share of FDI from EU countries is negli-
gible. Among the countries from which investments
mainly come, China, the Russian Federation, Turkey,
and South Korea, dominated in 2019.

4 | LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL WESTERNIZATION 6.5/15

4.1 USE OF THE LATIN ALPHABET IN THE NATIVE LANGUAGE, 2/2

Although Uzbekistan switched to the Lat- in
alphabet in 1993, this did not contribute at all to
the country’s cultural integration towards the
West. On the contrary, the young genera- tion
that began to receive education after 1993 (with
respect only to Uzbek-language schools) turned
out to be cut off from literature in the Uzbek
language that was published during the Soviet
period. The book market of Uzbek printed
materials was also divided into two sectors—lit-
erature published in Latin alphabet (mainly chil-
dren’s fiction and textbooks) and books aimed at
an adult reader (fiction and non-fiction). In May
2019, a new version of the Latin alphabet563 was
adopted, which canceled some letters and intro-
duced new ones. This by no means contributed
to the development of the publishing business
and improved access of the young generation to
world culture, since the number of translations of
world literature and specialty books into the
Uzbek language in the Latin alphabet is negligi-
ble in the present period.

4.2 PROPORTION OF THE POPULATION PROFICIENT IN THE MOST COMMON

LANGUAGES OF THE WEST (ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, SPANISH) 1.5/6

In terms of knowledge of the English better than in other educational institu-

language, Uzbekistan is at the very
bottom of the corre- sponding
international rating, being in 95th place
out of 100. 564 Higher education
institutions con- tinue to operate in the
country, in which English is taught
tions. These are the University of World
Languag- es, a branch of Westminster
University, the Univer-sity of World
Economy and Diplomacy, branches of
the Inha University of Korea and the
Singapore Institute for Management
Development, and the Turin
Polytechnic University. The number of
such educational institutions will grow,
and the govern- ment supports this
trend. The use of the English language
is increasing, but slowly. Grow is visible
mainly among students who go to study
at Western universities or study at local
branches of foreign universities, as well
4.3 SHARE OF WESTERN PRODUCTS IN THE NATION’S MOVIE THEATERS
AND ON TV CHANNELS, SHARE OF WESTERN INTERNET SITES AND SOCIAL MEDIA
(FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TWITTER) 3/7
Western television channels are hard to access
and not very popular in Uzbekistan, primarily due to
poor knowledge of foreign languages among the
majority of the population. However, Western film
distribution is dominant. The audience is aware of
what new films are released in the West, especially
in Hollywood and especially in the genre of block-
busters. Mostly American films are listed in the mov-
ie section on the local site Afisha.uz. The December
2019 program includes Jumanji: A New Level, The
Six Outlaws, Star Wars: Skywalker, and Sunrise.”565
5 | WESTERNIZATION OF LIFESTYLE 3/10
5.1 PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION WHO HAVE VISITED WESTERN COUNTRIES 1/5
Due to low living standards and low incomes, citizens of
Uzbekistan, unlike, say, Russians or residents of Ka-
zakhstan, rarely have the opportunity to travel to West-
ern countries for leisure or for business purposes. Basical-
ly, in terms of foreign travel destinations, Russia, Turkey,
Thailand, and some neighboring countries dominate.
A huge number of Uzbek citizens travel to the Rus-
sian Federation every year as labor migrants. For some
of them, this has the effect of socio-cultural integra-
tion with Russian society. After the Russian Federation,
Turkey, Kazakhstan, and South Korea are popular des-
tinations for labor migration. The number of labor mi-
grants in Europe is still very small due to the visa barrier.
Under Karimov, since 1997, the Umid program
has been in operation for sending Uzbek students
as employees of international
organizations and com- panies.
Branches of the British Council, Goethe
Institute, and the Hugo Center in
Tashkent contribute to the study of
English, German, and French lan-
guages, in which courses for the relevant
languag- es have been created.
In recent years, social networking applications have
become very popular in the country, especially Telegram,
YouTube, and Facebook (67%, 25%, and 19% according
to the latest survey in 2019).566 Previously, Russian appli-
cations dominated in this area, but over the past two or
three years they began to be replaced by Western ones.
Since mid-2018, authorities have blocked access to Face-
book and YouTube, but at the beginning of 2019, they
were unblocked. However, while fearing reprisals, some
Facebook users still use anonymous accounts using fake
names and do not reveal their real name.
to study in Western countries, but it lasted only one
year. In 2003, this program was transformed into the
Foundation of the President of the Republic of Uz-
bekistan, Istedod, to organize advanced training, in-
ternships and training scholarships abroad, but with
much less funding. In 2018, this was again trans-
formed into the El-Yurt Umidi Foundation (“Hope
of the Nation”) for training specialists abroad and
encouraging dialogue with compatriots, also with
little funding so far.567
Currently, Uzbek students study in Western uni-
versities mainly at their own expense or with the
support of international donors who offer a very
limited number of places under grants and mainly
under master’s programs.
5.2 PRESENCE OF WESTERN FRANCHISE COMPANIES, 0.5/3
So far, local brands and the corresponding cuisine
dominate in the restaurant business of Uzbekistan.
But in recent years, the presence of restaurants offer-
ing a menu of foreign dishes has grown rapidly. How-
ever, the number of franchise networks is growing
slowly. Here, mainly Russian franchises dominate. The
Russian site franshiza.ru counted only 74 franchises
across all sectors of the economy, 568 and Western
fast food brands such as Subway, Starbucks, McDon-
ald’s, Dunkin’, Pizza Hut, Burger King are almost ab-
sent on this list. Only in June this year, the Wendy’s569
5.3 MOBILE INTERNET COVERAGE, SMARTPHONE USAGE, 1.5/2
Over the past few years, until the beginning of
2019, the situation in the field of telecommunica-
tion services was extremely unsatisfactory—Internet
speed was slow, and the cost of traffic was high. This
was due in part because of a corruption scandal in the
mobile telecommunications sector in 2012, the result
of which was that one of the mobile operators, the
Russian company MTS, left the country. As a result,
the competitive environment in the sector was se-
verely undermined. In 2018, Uzbekistan was in 110th
place in the world in terms of Internet speed.570 Only
by May 2019 did the situation improve. The average
speed of wired Internet increased from 11.8 Mbit/s in
2018 to 18.92 Mbit/s in July 2019.571
Much work is being done to improve access to
broadband. Prices for international traffic are signif-
icantly reduced.572 International traffic in the coun-
try is limited due to the fact that Uzbekistan does
not have direct access to the sea (there are only
two such countries in the world—another coun- try
is Luxembourg). Therefore, the state is heavily
restaurant opened. Until September 2017, an obstacle
to opening branches of these franchises was a highly
centralized foreign exchange policy, which impeded
the export of hard currency profits from the country,
as well as numerous restrictions on private business
activities. The situation in this regard has improved,
but so far not so that global franchises rush to Uz-
bekistan. Although food in fast foods is cheap in the
West, not every Uzbek citizen can afford it with their
low incomes. This is another barrier discouraging the
arrival of franchises in the country.
dependent on landlines for international communi-
cations—with the increase in the number of users,
traffic becomes slower.
This problem (increasing the speed of international
traffic, and accordingly, improving access to broad-
band Internet) is now being solved by the World Bank
together with the government of Uzbekistan within
the framework of the Digital CASA program.573 The
current government also intends to attract private in-
vestment in order to deploy 277,000 km of fiber-optic
infrastructure by 2021.574
However, to date, the situation in the field of mo-
bile Internet has not improved significantly compared
to 2018. Uzbekistan’s world ranking in terms of mo-
bile Internet speed dropped to 136th place. 575
As of April 2019, there were more than 22 million
mobile subscribers in the country, i.e. 67% of the
total population, including 16 million mobile Inter-
net users. In 2019, mobile operators have planned
more than three thousand new base stations in all
regions of the republic.576